The present invention is in an apparatus for depositing a viscous fluid mass containing a material capable of crystallizing and/or a gelatin-like material to form an ornamental design on a surface of a product such as pastries and the like and, in particular, in an apparatus known as a string icing depositor.
In the manufacture of food products such as candies, cakes and pastries, it is desirable to decorate the product surface with an ornamental design or pattern or otherwise decorate a surface, usually the top or outer-most surface of the candy, cake or pastry. The decorating material is usually a viscous flowable mass such as a paste and is generally a confectionery product such as a sugar-water mixture and/or a fatty material such as a chocolate.
A longstanding problem in the production of such products is that the decorating material generally contains components which may undergo large viscosity or even phase changes, i.e., hardening, depending on the compositional make-up of the mass. Such changes in consistency or phase often are a source of operational difficulties in the apparatus. The viscosity or phase changes cause plugging and can result in non-uniform or varying designs. The build-up can result in plugging which not only causes the apparatus to malfunction but also raises concerns about the manufacturing practices. Plugging results in shutdowns for cleaning and downtiming. Obviously, frequent pluggings cause loss of actual production capability.
Another disadvantage is that the number of decorative designs that can be generated by a single system is limited, especially when the decorative material contains components likely to undergo viscosity or phase changes. The design limitations arise from the fact that hand decoration cannot be employed economically or practically for commercial scale production quantities and available mechanical decorating equipment is limited to either only one design or a relatively small number of designs. Thus, to obtain an acceptable and sufficient number of design variations, a number of machines with different design capabilities are required.
However, economic concerns are an underlying consideration since to produce a large number of designs one would either require 1) a large number of machines, or 2) the ability to adapt one or a few machines to provide different patterns. The first approach requires increased capital investment, increased maintenance scheduling and additional spare parts and operating personnel familiar with the numerous machines. The second approach requires extended machine downtime for modification or adaptation and restart-up. Neither approach is satisfactory.